Wednesday, December 30, 2015

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 31/12/2015

AVG Chrome Extension Created Security Risk For Millions
I
might be wrong but isn't antivirus software supposed to keep you safe
from the bad guys? If you've been running the AVG Chrome extension, you
might want to read this.

When Google reported the
existence of a gaping flaw that appeared trivially easy to exploit and
exposed users' browsing history and hindered Chrome's malware-checking
abilities, they hoped AVG would move quickly to patch it up. To their
credit, they put together a fix and pushed it to the Chrome Web Store
within four days of Google security engineer Tavis Ormandy's initial
report. They failed to take care of a potential man-in-the-middle
vulnerability, though, and had to push a second update the next day
after additional prompting from Ormandy.

Adobe Flash Player Had 316 Bugs In 2015
This
is exactly why we give Adobe so much crap about Flash. Seriously, three
hundred and sixteen flaws found in one year? Yikes.

For
the year, Flash averaged 6.1 bug fixes per week. Think of it as a bug
fix every day, but taking Sundays off to rest. There was a flood of
fixes at the end of the year. From mid-October on, Adobe fixed 113
bugs, roughly 1.5 per day. The final tally for 2015 is 316 Flash Player
bugs. This, for software that is over 18 years old.

Twitter Hires Apple Exec To Be Its New Diversity Chief
Out
with the old, in with the new. I kind of wonder if Twitter dumped Van
Huysse or if she really is just leaving for greener pastures?

Siminoff
tweeted Monday he's "super excited" to be joining Twitter sometime next
month. He was Apple's director of worldwide inclusion and diversity for
more than two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Siminoff also
led global diversity and inclusion efforts at Morgan Stanley for three
years. He's also a founding member of Out Leadership, a global LGBT
leadership organization.

Stupid Patent Of The Month: Microsoft's Design Patent On A Slider
Honestly,
none of this stuff even makes me bat an eye anymore. With patents on
rounded corners, 1-click shopping, slide-to-unlock and countless others,
this doesn't surprise me in the least.

For the first
time ever, this month's Stupid Patent of the Month is being awarded to a
design patent. Microsoft recently sued Corel for, among other things,
infringing its patent on a slider, D554,140, claiming that Corel Home
Office has infringed Microsoft's design. The design patent, as detailed
by Microsoft in its complaint, is titled "User Interface for a Portion
of a Display Screen" and entitles.

Foursquare's Valuation Is Getting Chopped in Half
Foursquare
is close to finalizing a "down" round of funding that will value the
company at less than half of what investors thought it was worth just
two years ago.

Down rounds are typically punishing for
founders, reducing both the value and the size of their stakes in
concert. Frequently, doing one triggers "anti-dilution" mechanisms
designed to protect early investors by carving up founders' equity still
more. A down round is thus widely regarded as a red flag for a company.

Twitter Has Updated Its Terms of Service
Twitter
has updated its terms of service agreement today. As far as I can tell,
the only thing I see different about the rules is the section on
"hateful conduct."

Hateful conduct: You may not promote
violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the
basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender,
gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We
also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm
towards others on the basis of these categories.

Windows 10's End-Of-Year Report Card
Ed
Bott over at ZDNet has put together a Windows 10 end-of-the-year report
card today that is worth checking out. The article gives A through F
ratings for everything from adoption rate to security. Hit the link and
tell us what you think.

Of course, it wouldn't be a
major Microsoft release without an equally oversized serving of
controversy, and Windows 10 had more than its share this year. Some of
it was self-inflicted, with executives (probably at the behest of
lawyers) releasing poorly written announcements that looked like they
were hiding something.

Doctors Use Cardboard VR Tech To Save Baby's Life
Surgeons
at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida used Google's
Cardboard VR headset to help save a four-month-old little girl's life.

The
pediatric surgeons at Nicklaus Children's Hospital took computer scans
of Teegan's heart and lung and uploaded the images to a smartphone. They
were then able to look at 3D images of her tiny heart and lung using
Google Cardboard.

HyQ2Max: The Robot You Can't Keep Down
Researchers
from the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a new quadruped
robot capable of tracking and killing humans in extremely rough
terrain. Thanks a lot IIT.

FirePower Fatal1ty 750W Power Supply Review
If
you are upgrading or replacing your current PSU, make sure you take a
moment today to read our evaluation of the FirePower Fatal1ty 750W power
supply.

The Fatal1ty Series PSUs by Firepower
Technology may seem to be something new in the world of computer power
supplies, but really it is not. That said, Firepower is somewhat new in
the PSU world, so let's see where they are headed right now.

Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Case Review
There
is a review of the Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX case posted today at
Technology X. For comparison purposes, you can see our evaluation here.

By
far one of the most spacious and modular cases we've reviewed in a
while. This chassis was built for those who do things a little different
from the norm. Extremely customizable and fun to build with, buckle up
while we talk about Thermaltake's new Suppressor F31 case.

Unreal Engine 4 Augmented Reality Fight Scene
Some
guy created a pretty cool Unreal Engine 4 fight scene demo in augmented
reality using the AR plugin for UE4. With all the VR headsets on the
horizon, how many of you are looking forward to augmented reality games?

Intel Launches 8 New Desktop And Mobile CPUs
In
addition to introducing a half-dozen mobile CPUs, Intel has released
two new desktop processors that do not include integrated graphics.

Two
new desktop processors are Core i3-6098P and Core i5-6402P. Both model
numbers have a suffix "P", that was used to signify the lack of
integrated GPU in older generations of Core i3/i5 products. There is a
good chance that it still means just that. The Core i3-6098P has 2
Hyper-threaded CPU cores, operating at 3.6 GHz. Its official price is
$117, which is on a par with the Core i3-6100. The i5-6402P is a
quad-core processor with 6 MB of last level cache. The CPU runs at 2.8
GHz, or 100 MHz faster than the Core i5-6400. The i5 processor is priced
at $182.